Academy Teams

PREVIEW: Wanderers vs. Mariners

It’s Friday night football and the Central Coast Mariners are gearing up for a clash against the Western Sydney Wanderers. Kick-off is 7:40pm for our last match at Pirtek Stadium.

There aren’t too many tougher tests in the Hyundai A-League than a trip to Wanderland, especially when the fans will be out in full force for their last ever match at the venue.

Skipper, Nick Montgomery is battling for full fitness after picking up a calf injury in our last home match against Sydney FC and Roy O'Donovan is flying after banging away a goal of the season candidate against Adelaide.

We were there for the first ever Wanderers match at Pirtek Stadium, so it's only fitting that we are there for the last.

Roy O’Donovan

“I’ve seen it [the goal] on the news channel a few times and the boys give me a bit of banter every time it comes on,” O’Donovan said.

“I’m delighted to have scored a few goals to get my numbers up again but I’m disappointed we lost. First and foremost it’s about winning games, when you score two goals away from home you need to be at least taking home a point.

“They’re a good team, they are playing some good stuff with some very experienced players. We need to stand up to the battle and keep things tight at the back.

“We’ve got two games to go, we need to finish strong and we need to be more competitive,” O’Donovan said.

Tony Walmsley

“Monty will do everything he can to make himself available, the physio has been working with him around the clock to get that calf right and everyone’s hopeful he will make it,” Walmsley said.

“Liam Rose is showing us already that he can step up, he’s a bit of a talisman for us in midfield at the moment, for an 18-year-old to be in control of his game and in control of how we move around the pitch and it’s great to watch him becoming the player we know he is.

“The last time we played the Wanderers we lost 2-1, two errors on our part and on that night we were competitive throughout so we’re going to have a go in front of a massive crowd so I’m interested to see how we go," Walmsley said.